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Description AS USED TO ESTABLISH SETTING
Description AS USED TO ESTABLISH SETTING Description AS USED TO ESTABLISH SETTING . Should be Mainly Suggestive May be by Epithet • May be by Simple Hint • • May be Direct • • May Depict a Thing by Its Effects • • Often Employs Figures of Speech • • Is Strongly Influenced by Point of View • • Seven Steps in Description • THE SETTING OF THE STORY Marble, paint, and language, the pen, the needle, and the brush, all have their grossnesses, their ineffable impotences, their hours, if I may so express myself, of insubordination. It is the work and it is a great part of the delight of any artist to contend with these unruly tools, and now by brute energy, now by witty expedient, to drive and coax them to effect his will. STEVENSON, A Nose on Realism. It is the habit of my imagination to strive after as full a vision of the medium in which a character moves as of the character itself. The psychological causes which prompted me to give such details of Florentine life and history as I have given Romola are precisely the same as those which determined me in giving the details of English village life in Silas Marner or the "Dodson " life, out of which were developed the destinies of poor Tom and Maggie. — GEORGE ELIOT, quoted in her Life by J. W. CROSS. Setting consists of the circumstances, material and immaterial, in which the characters are seen to move in the story. Its elements are time, place, occupations, and (I lack a more expressive word) conditions. Each of these we must briefly examine, together with the literary devices by which setting is established. First, however, a general view. The setting of a short-story no more exists for its own sake than the setting of a diamond. The story — the diamond — is the chief thing. If the setting, by its ornate style, its beauty, its imperfections, its very bulk, should overshadow and obscure the gem, it would be worse than useless. But when story and setting are in harmony, the effect is as of one jewel — each part indeed not indistinguishable from the other, but so integrated that the highest enjoyment arises from considering them as a whole. Hold all things in true perspective. As the setting exists to glorify the short-story, so the story governs the tone of the setting. Do the characters need contrast to silhouette them boldly, the setting must be accommodated to this requirement ; and a like adaptation is required if harmony, instead of contrast, be the tone needed for their effective presentation. In the sketch, setting may rise to the eminent place and become practically the story itself ; in the character study it sinks to a subdued position. Certain story-tellers delight to create a setting and then let the characters work out their destinies in this fixed environment. There is no objection to this method for those who can employ it successfully, but in either case setting and characters must be harmonized or contrasted artistically, and, as before, setting is for the sake of the story. Its influence is powerful. As in real life environment strongly influences character, so in fiction we may see the power of surroundings working upon the emotions, the moods, the actions, even the destinies of the characters. 1Zola goes so far as to say that the environment " determines and completes the man. " 2 Setting is first of all a preparation. We have seen in the preceding chapter that its lines are often laid in the very opening paragraphs of the story. But it may also be progressive, and move, like the shadow of the traveler, everywhere the characters go, until at length, with the story's close, it lingers in the mind as an integral part of the picture. Setting is sometimes prophetic, forecasting, while it assists in creating, the mood of the story. Upon the reader, setting lays the impression of reality, or of unreality, in the picture. Without its realistic pictorial help the story would be as bare as was the early drama unassisted by special costume and scenery. When the characters live, move, and have their being in the setting, the result is atmosphere. Atmosphere is thus an effect. It is felt, not seen. Through its medium the reader must see all the action, yes, all the details of the story. Atmosphere gives value to the tones of fiction as in real life it does to landscape. The hills are actually the same in cloud and in sunshine, but the eye sees them as different through the mediate atmosphere. And so setting and characters, perfectly adjusted, make the reader, that is to say the beholder, see the story in the very tones the literary artist desires. A story of the sea has an atmosphere of its own, but the atmosphere The setting of a short-story no more exists for its own sake than the setting of a diamond. The story — the diamond — is the chief thing. If the setting, by its ornate style, its beauty, its imperfections, its very bulk, should overshadow and obscure the gem, it would be worse than useless. But when story and setting are in harmony, the effect is as of one jewel — each part indeed not indistinguishable from the other, but so integrated that the highest enjoyment arises from considering them as a whole. Hold all things in true perspective. As the setting exists to glorify the short-story, so the story governs the tone of the setting. Do the characters need contrast to silhouette them boldly, the setting must be accommodated to this requirement ; and a like adaptation is required if harmony, instead of contrast, be the tone needed for their effective presentation. In the sketch, setting may rise to the eminent place and become practically the story itself ; in the character study it sinks to a subdued position. Certain story-tellers delight to create a setting and then let the characters work out their destinies in this fixed environment. There is no objection to this method for those who can employ it successfully, but in either case setting and characters must be harmonized or contrasted artistically, and, as before, setting is for the sake of the story. Its influence is powerful. As in real life environment strongly influences character, so in fiction we may see the power of surroundings working upon the emotions, the moods, the actions, even the destinies of the characters. ' Zola goes so far as to say that the environment " determines and completes the man. " 2 Setting is first of all a preparation. We have seen in the preceding chapter that its lines are often laid in the very opening paragraphs of the story. But it may also be progressive, and move, like the shadow of the traveler, everywhere the characters go, until at length, with the story's close, it lingers in the mind as an integral part of the picture. Setting is sometimes prophetic, forecasting, while it assists in creating, the mood of the story. Upon the reader, setting lays the impression of reality, or of unreality, in the picture. Without its realistic pictorial help the story would be as bare as was the early drama unassisted by special costume and scenery. When the characters live, move, and have their being in the setting, the result is atmosphere. Atmosphere is thus an effect. It is felt, not seen. Through its medium the reader must see all the action, yes, all the details of the story. Atmosphere gives value to the tones of fiction as in real life it does to landscape. The hills are actually the same in cloud and in sunshine, but the eye sees them as different through the mediate atmosphere. And so setting and characters, perfectly adjusted, make the reader, that is to say the beholder, see the story in the very tones the literary artist desires. A story of the sea has an atmosphere of its own, but the atmosphere the one and reject the other. It is difficult to make this whole distinction clear, and, after all, nothing but training, or experience, or your own common sense, can teach you that which is vital in a picture and that which is dependent. Again, this literary, this significant, this selective sort of Description is of two kinds: that which has to do with the persons of the story, and that which deals with impersonal objects. Naturally, these two provinces are not always sharply separated, and here and there may intimately overlap. The chapter on " Character and Characterization " takes up the former, while the latter we are now to consider. However, most of the principles laid down for the one will apply also to the other. In so brief a literary form as the short-story I. Description Should be Mainly Suggestive It is only the trained observer who notes all the details of a scene. Even familiar landscapes, houses, and rooms, usually leave upon us only general impressions ; but take away one of the salient features and the scene at once strikes us as different, yet somehow the same; it may require a friend to tell us just what is missing, but a single feature lacking makes all the change. Now it is the picturing of the striking characteristics in a scene which constitutes suggestive Description. Gray, in a letter to West, spoke. of minute describing as " an ill habit that will wear off " ; and Disraeli said Description was " always a bore both to the describer and the describee " ; while Stevenson averred that " no human being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes one suspect we hear too much of it in literature. " To catalogue all the details is to weary the mind. How much better to bring out just those points which enable the reader to supply the rest. You have seen those ingenious black-and-white sketches which are " so simple " — until you undertake to do one from life. A few black strokes and the figure is complete. Not an outline, nor even actual likeness to the features which are suggested. Those marks are not really in the form of lips and eyes and nose, yet somehow the face stands out complete — memory, association, and imagination have filled in the details. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner is full of this strongly sketched suggestion. Of the poet's method in this masterpiece, as contrasted with expository Description, Lowell says : " And how picturesque it is in the proper sense of the word. I know nothing like it. There is not a Description in it. It is all picture. Descriptive poets generally confuse us with multiplicity of detail ; we cannot see their forest for the trees; but Coleridge never errs in this way. With instinctive tact he touches the right chord of association, and is satisfied, as we also are. "6 Note these suggestive lines about Avignon, from Daudet's " The Pope's Mule ": " Ah the happy days! the happy city! Halberds that did not wound, state prisons where they put wine to cool. No famine; no wars. " 2. Brief Description May Be by Epithet " Ever-mindful, " " blue-eyed, " " white-armed, " " laughter-loving, " are now conventional compounds, but fresh enough when Homer first conjoined them. The centuries have not yet improved upon " Wheels round, brazen, eightspoked, " or " Shields smooth, beautiful, brazen, well-hammered, " 6though they may be thought too heroic for ordinary prose. Observe the effective use of epithet in Will Levington Comfort's " The Fighting Death ": "That `Come on, fellows!' changed the aspect of affairs in the minds of several of the men — a quick and business-like utterance. In it there was neither rank nor nerves, which are not needed in the Silang gorges. It pulled a cheer from the waiting van, leeched against the cliff; an instant later a raw, high-pitched yell and a drumming of guns came from the heights. Down the steep bank scrambled the little party, the Cumberer limping in the lead. Glawm's trick to occupy the attention of the rebels was pure logic. The Thirteenth had entered the impregnated zone. One was down. "Birdie turned, unfolded his command, lifted the fallen and chucked the body easily up the trail out of range, rejoining his men in a twinkling. The staff muttered acclaim. Down, down toward the little ribbon of river that boiled with wasted shots, trotted this plaything of the enemy. " 3. Description May Be by Simple Hint Lowell notes a happy instance of this sort of picturing by intimation when he says of Chaucer : " Sometimes he describes amply by the merest hint, as where the Friar, before setting himself down, drives away the cat. We know without need of more words that he has chosen the snuggest corner. " 4. Description May be Direct This statement is plain enough without exposition. Use your own judgment as to whether in picturing a given scene you had better proceed from a general view to the details, or first give the details and thus build up the general picture. In the short-story direct Description should be very brief indeed. • Description May Depict a Thing by Its Effects • " When the spectator's eye is dazzled, and he shades it, we form the idea of a splendid object ; when his face turns pale, of a horrible one; from his quick wonder and admiration we form the idea of great beauty; from his silent awe, of great majesty. " 9 • Description Often Employs Figures of Speech • '(a)Simile: "Harrow-on-the-Hill, with its pointed spire, rises blue in the distance ; and distant ridges, like the receding waves, rise into blueness, one after the other, out of the low-lying mist ; the last ridge bluely melting into space. In the midst of it all, gleams the Welsh Harp Lake, like a piece of sky that has become unstuck and tumbled into the landscape with its shining side up. " 10 • metaphor: • " Before us lies a sea of fern, gone a russet-brown from decay, in which are isles of lark green gorse —" 11 • Personification: • "— and little trees with scarlet and orange and lemon colored leaflets fluttering down, and running after each other on the bright grass, under the brisk west wind which makes the willows rustle and turn up the whites of their leaves in pious resignation to the coming change. "12 (d) Hyperbole: " ' Just, so, ' said the notary, pulling out his watch, which was two inches thick and looked like a Dutch man-of-war. " " 7. Description is Strongly Influenced by Point of View Any of three methods may be adopted: The single view-point may be maintained throughout the Description, as though one would take his stand at the most advantageous point and describe only what could be seen from that single position. Or the view-point may shift progressively, as when the reader is being conducted along a highroad. Or the view-point may remain stationary while the object moves, as when a vessel approaches the beholder. Oftener than not, Description will make use of a number of the foregoing methods instead of confining itself to anyone type to delineate a given scene. 8. The Seven Steps in Description In the chapters on " Gathering the Materials " and " Some Special Qualities of Style, ' consideration is given to each of these seven steps : OBSERVATION, READING, IMAGINATION, COMPARISON, SELECTION, COORDINATION, and COMPRESSION. All of these have to do with first collecting and then arranging the facts of the proposed setting for use in building up a Description, however simply the scene is to be depicted. The last decade has intensified the discussion as to whether the novelist shall devote his power of faithful delineation to studies in local color, as Mary Wilkins Freeman, or, like Balzac, choose a universal scope. This argument does not directly affect the short-story writer, and may be dismissed with the remark that to what " school " soever an author may incline he will find ample use for his ability to grasp the essentials of a scene. Later usage has developed more and more the spirit of historical and physical accuracy in the writer's attempt to describe setting. This tends toward realism, and as this spirit grows we may expect to see romance and imagination increasingly subordinated. Even now little really imaginative fiction is being produced ; instead, we see much fine work in accurate delineation. The same careful study of historical periods, costuming and local color, which makes the stage so pictorial and the painter so faithful in his portrayals, has inspired the writer of short-stories. But be on your guard lest you lose the spirit of the story in what Frank Norris used to call its " clothes, " and so turn a virtue into a folly. Category:Setting Category:description